Punjab Assembly: MMA demands building of Kalabagh Dam

Dost Khosa says only Nawaz Sharif can form south Punjab province.

LAHORE:

A Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) member walked out of the Punjab Assembly on Thursday in protest at the speaker’s refusal to let him present a resolution supporting the construction of Kalabagh Dam out of turn.

The first day of the assembly’s 43rd session began around 6pm, some three hours later than scheduled, with question hour concerning the Dairy Development Department. The members’ queries were addressed by Agriculture Minister Ahmad Ali Aulakh.

MMA Parliamentary Leader Ali Haider Niazi later stood on a point of order to applaud the Lahore High Court’s recent decision in the Kalabagh Dam case, calling it a historic step. He said the political parties criticising the verdict were “just playing politics”.

Niazi said that the energy crisis in the country had knock-on effects on law and order, the economy and unemployment. The shortage could be resolved by building the dam, he said.

He said that political parties and provincial assemblies which passed resolutions against KBD were politicising the issue. He said that future generations would curse the federal government if it did not build the dam.

He said that he had submitted a resolution in the assembly secretariat which should be presented in the current session. He tried to read out the resolution, but Speaker Rana Iqbal stopped him, saying the resolution would be entertained only when it comes before him as part of the agenda of the house. The MMA MPA then walked out of the house in protest.

Hassan Murtaza of the PPP voiced concern that sugarcane farmers were not being paid by sugar mills even though crushing season had arrived. He asked the speaker to form a committee which would approach the cane commissioner and the food secretary to find a solution whereby farmers would get paid at the doorstep of sugar mills.

The session was attended my more opposition members than treasury members.

Outside the assembly

Senator Sardar Zulfiqar Khan Khosa and his son former chief minister Sardar Dost Muhammad Khosa of the Muslim League-Nawaz also came to the assembly on Thursday, for the first time in a long while.

Talking to reporters, Dost Khosa criticised the Punjab government, saying that it should launch development projects in the south and not just concentrate on development in Lahore. He said that PML-N President Nawaz Sharif was the only leader who could form a south Punjab province.

He said that the federal government had politicised the issue of the creation of new provinces in Punjab. He said that there were three different voices in the area: one from Bahwalpur for the formation of a Bahawalpur province, one from Multan for the formation of a Siraiki province, and another from Dera Ghazi Khan division for the creation of a South Punjab province.

Opposition Leader Raja Riaz of the Pakistan Peoples Party, talking with the media at the assembly steps, said that Shahbaz Sharif was more the mayor of Lahore than the chief minister of the Punjab, as he had ignored all the other districts of the province.

He said that the Metro Bus Service project in Lahore had affected 50,000 businesses. He said that the city was suffering from the government’s poor planning. Kalma Chowk had been remade just a few months ago, but was now a construction site again as the government was building an underpass there. The government had first issued notices to businesses for the acquisition of land three marlas from the MBS route, then for seven marlas, and was now demanding 14 marlas.

He said that the government was paying Rs2.5 million per marla for land owned by government institutions, but just Rs1.2 million per marla for land owned by private businesses.

Riaz said that Law Minister Rana Sanaullah would contest the upcoming general elections from Lahore as the people of his Faisalabad constituency were sick of him.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2012.